meh - it's a piece of plastic which gets cut/removed to the cooler can fit. I would like to see the corresponding part of the cooler which necessitates the removal of that corner before deciding if it is bad design or not.

I'd rather the cooler be properly sized and have them trim a noxious piece of useless plastic then deal with other issues. this type of stuff goes on all the time in various manufacturing lines everywhere. I won't eve get started on the bodyshops at most of the automotive manufacturers where sledgehammers might be involved to get body panels to fit correctly into the robotic welding jigs.

So its not the end of the world, nor is it even a topic worthy of discussion. More then likely the connector came in a bit over clearance spec or the cooler did. the problem is easily rectified, I would gather that would add roughly 3-4 minutes per card for assembly time. A big PITA once discovered and definately could cuase a line halt. Certainly not to end of the world. Certainly nothing to make a big deal of.

anyways I'd consider buying the card regardless. except I am not currently in the market for a card.

meh - it's a piece of plastic which gets cut/removed to the cooler can fit. I would like to see the corresponding part of the cooler which necessitates the removal of that corner before deciding if it is bad design or not.

Click to expand...

my only concern would be shorting issues, most likely not a concern as a video card is not in a enviroment where it could even become problematic.

The cooler is most likely designed by a 3rd party for AMD.
But this is pretty bad...

On a side not, I think AMD's post-HD4k series PCBs have been less smart. Cypress and Cayman both have terrible amounts of wasted PCB around and in VRM section. HD4870 & 90 are nice and compact. HD58_0 & HD69_0 are just bloated.

Not a big issue, and I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see it on any other cards than the first batch that ATi was rushing to get out on the market. They probably noticed it already, but didn't feel it was necessary to hold up production for, and just manually modified the first batch. I don't really see a big deal here since most users would never remove the HSF to notice it anyway.

I was wondering about that a buddy of mine in Germany got one and said it was hitting 94C with that fan on auto, manual fan turned up he got 89C which is suspiciously high for such a refined cool running design. The way this looks is that the card were rushed for the holiday season. First the performance and now this although in a little while I'm sure the drivers will help the card perform better. Looks like this might increase the prices of Nvidia cards rather than leveling them out .

I was wondering about that a buddy of mine in Germany got one and said it was hitting 94C with that fan on auto, manual fan turned up he got 89C which is suspiciously high for such a refined cool running design. The way this looks is that the card were rushed for the holiday season. First the performance and now this although in a little while I'm sure the drivers will help the card perform better. Looks like this might increase the prices of Nvidia cards rather than leveling them out .

I was wondering about that a buddy of mine in Germany got one and said it was hitting 94C with that fan on auto, manual fan turned up he got 89C which is suspiciously high for such a refined cool running design. The way this looks is that the card were rushed for the holiday season. First the performance and now this although in a little while I'm sure the drivers will help the card perform better. Looks like this might increase the prices of Nvidia cards rather than leveling them out .

Click to expand...

I have read a fewreviews and feedback comments where the driver updates have dramatically lowered tempatures.

It is one of those sites that grab the smallest thing and make a bug fuss and all emo about it again.
That little bit of plastic does not serve much function anyways.
The main purpose of that socket is to hold the pci-e power connector in place.
It does not prevent any kind of arching or short-circuiting as the pin are exposed on that end anyways, and +12V is not enough to cause any arching.

This is not that surprising. Being first to market a new product at this time of year is fairly critical. The next batch will no doubt have a new replacement mold for the plastic sheathe of the effected 8 pin connector so that the cooler fits with no problems.

They had a choice between putting all of these cards back on the shelf and then replacing that connector on each card, or taking a short cut, allowing the cards to get to the market when they were supposed to.

My only concern (as Thatguy mentioned) would be an electrical short if one of the pins somehow touched the metal cooler. Or if someone touched the metal cooler while the system was on (which was accidentally touching a metal pin from the 8 pin connector). That would then make the user part of the electrical circuit involving over 20 amperes of current.

However, that would definitely make AMD's cards the most exciting video cards in the world. No contest.